Delivering Complex Capital Programmes

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐬

“𝑵𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝒃𝒚 2025”

This was from one of the McKinsey & Company featured insights “𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴?” (March 2022) and had several other interesting articles (link is below in comments).

The first link caught my eye “𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 – 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺?

I think there is another bit to this as well “𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 – 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺?

Delivering complex capital programmes is really challenging and will vary depending where you are positioned organisationally and contractually. There are many other areas and challenges to consider too.

Its complicated delivering multiple projects

Whether you are the client, operator, developer or the main contractor, consultant or a 2nd/3rd tier contractor, supply chain partner, we all have our internal operations and data, which then have to work externally with everyone else’s.

It gets more complicated when you look across the continuous asset lifecycle and are delivering multiple capital projects and programmes with different organisations in different locations:

• Master Planning
• Concept Design
• Detailed Design
• Procurement
• Construction
• Commission (Validation) and Handover
• Facilities Management

Below I have put together a lifecycle diagram along with some issues and what is needed.  Its not exhaustive or complete by any means but hopefully captures commons issues that we experience and need to fix.

Capital Delivery Data

The number of times that I have seen multiple page reports with lots of capital delivery data and information that does get read, let alone used is more than I care to remember.

In addition,  the amount of days wasted just on one of these “key” weekly reports for an organisation is always in the hundreds of days per annum

Big Data and Small Data

There is a lot of talk about big data, AI, Machine Learning and it is part of the overall solution.

However, people and businesses are working at a different pace and understanding to one another about these new technologies and how to apply them.  We dont always align on the what the project outcomes should be let alone on what data we need to measure these outcomes.

As discussed with a colleague its a “Chaotic environment”.

If we could simply agree on the small, critical bits of data that would be a start.

Get the basics right

Simplifying internal and external business processes, identifying the key data attributes (dates, numbers, statuses, etc.) including comments to put it into context along with the necessary people (RACI matrix) is a good start. It is also an iterative process too, not just a one off exercise.

Then jointly organising the data, processes and people so that they are sufficiently aligned (you will never get 100% alignment so don’t try, go 80/20), to be able to roll up/down and across this “chaotic environment”

This is where data can improve your organisations operations and processes, along with “right” people and their comments to put it into context.

This makes it easier to technically organise, implement and integrate a solution or tool like R-PPM using the SharpCloud platform.

The ability to start simply and do it in an agile way to co-create your solution means that everyone is along for the co-evolution journey. You start getting immediate successes (compared to the manual, paper based, transactional way) and you are not committed to a long, overly complicated and costly solution development project, waiting for the benefits to appear.

Below is an integrated business and capital delivery reporting model.  It can start simply with just the RAG status and commentary of functions, teams and other organisations that provides immediate benefit through “management by exception”, which helps to guide the conversations.

Start with a simple construction user case first

What if you could see a simple Red, Amber Green (RAG) Status of all your projects at a Programme and Portfolio level first, would that be of benefit?

Furthermore, if it was easy for people to update from anywhere, that automatically updates programmes and portfolios, can be implemented within days and does not significantly impact organisations/peoples ways of working, I would suggest you have taken a significant step forward in optimising your work and delivery of your capita programme.

• No more multiple emails and spreadsheet RAG reports! 
• No more misunderstandings, lack of sharing and communication. 
• No more wasted time and costs copying, pasting, chasing, checking data.

Yes assigning a RAG status is subjective.

However, what I have seen is that after 6 to 12 months people start to understand the parameters, the boundaries, “the field of play” and the data and commentary gets better.

Construction Agile reporting

Then add costs, or dates or risks and build up your data capability, culture and “reporting” in an agile, continuous way so everyone is part of the data enabling and driven journey.

This also starts to form part of your “quality” data set for AI/ML and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) initiatives.

Discover More About Simplifying Your Construction Complex Decision Making

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